Nearly 23,000 vehicles crossed the Dhaka Elevated Expressway’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport-Farmgate route on the first day on Sunday, officials said on Monday.

In the first 24 hours between 6:00am on Sunday and 6:00am on Monday, 22,805 vehicles crossed the expressway and a total of Tk 18,52,880 was collected as toll from these vehicles, they said.

The highest number of vehicles crossed the expressway from Kawla point in the airport area towards Kamal Atartuk in Banani, Mohakhali, and Farmgate areas.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the section of the expressway Saturday afternoon.

The 46.73-kilometre expressway project will connect the airport with the Dhaka-Chattogram Highway at Kutubkhali near Jatrabari.

On Saturday, in the first phase, the expressway’s 11.5-kilometre section from the airport’s Kawla area to Farmgate point via Tejgaon and 13 ramps was opened to vehicular traffic.

AHMS Aktar, project director of the Dhaka Elevated Expressway Public-Private Partnership Project under the supervision of the Bangladesh Bridge Authority, said that from 6:00am on Sunday to 6:00am on Monday from Kawla (airport area), 12,242 vehicles went to Kamal Ataturk, Mohakhali, and Farmgate areas; from Kuril, 2,425 vehicles went to Kamal Ataturk, Mohakhali, Farmgate, from Banani, 2,892 vehicles went to Kuril and Kawla and from Tejgaon, 5,246 vehicles went to Mohakhali, Kamal Ataturk, Kuril, and Kawla areas.

The road transport and bridges ministry has fixed the expressway’s airport-Farmgate section tolls at Tk 80 to Tk 400.

The maximum speed of vehicles on the expressway is 60km per hour while the maximum speed for vehicles getting on or down using ramps is 40km per hour.

Two and three-wheeled vehicles and pedestrians are banned on the expressway.